I Am
by RaeAnne
Summary: Post Doomsday. "I am the TARDIS, I am the keeper of the Doctor." An impossible reunion between the Doctor and Rose. The TARDIS looks after her Doctor and Rose, she helps give them what they need, starting with a reunion on Bad Wolf Bay. Various, non-canon, glimpses at their adventures amongst the stars NEW: I Am a Rock; the Doctor and his Rose go on a date.
1. I Am

**My first ever Doctor Who fic! Woohoo! So, I am a late to the game follower of the Doctor. I am still working through the new/recent seasons and shouldn't by any means be considered at all extremely well versed with all that is Doctor Who – but I'm learning. I am up to Doomsday, this story takes place pretty much directly after that episode. I have watched, read about what happens after and what not...I'm just struggling giving up the Doctor/Rose pairing just yet...lol bare with me!**

**I'm watching, reading: learning. **

**I haven't seen ****The Doctor's Wife**** but I've read bits about it and I am completely enamoured with the TARDIS. I think the ship is fantastic and I've been reading a bit on her history...She takes a bit of an obvious place in this story. I've made her probably entirely more sentient than she is and have take great liberties with this...But I'm fanciful, I can't help it.**

**I hope you don't judge me too harshly on their repersination, as I said I am still learning all about the delicious new fandom. Reviews are GREATLY, GREATLY appreciated. This story is intended to be a one-shot, but I might add bits now and again as I learn and fall in love even more...reviewing certainly also helps, lets me know if I'm on to something, or just bonkers.**

**DISCLAIMER: all recognized bits and characters property of BBC and their creators...I'm just playing, no monies are being made.**

* * *

**I Am**

_At the age of 8 I looked into the Untempered Schism. After doing so young Time Lords, such as I was, usually do one of a three things:_

_ Some are inspired._

_ Some go mad._

_ Some run away._

_ Me? Well, I ran...and I've never stopped._

_ Until today._

_ Today is the day that I stopped running._

* * *

_**My name is not a name the human tongue can speak, well no tongue really, except for one. His tongue, my tongue.**_

_** I have no form except the coral tomb where my soul resides. Often my heart and soul are seen as the same thing. Yet, they aren't. I can assure you they are most most certainly different.**_

_** My soul is housed at this centre of my glorious physical dwelling but my heart, oh my heart, it resides in my Time Lord.**_

_** My pilot, my constant companion...My Doctor. I've been with him more years than either of us really care to remember, though I am a machine and I could figure, down to the precise nano-second, when his life imprinted to me, but neither he nor I keep count.**_

_** We were grown on the same planet, my Doctor and I, though ancient, aged beyond usefulness was I while he was still young. **_

_** I am technically a TT Type 40 Mach 3 and the last of my sisters of which there were originally 305. Now, like my Doctor, we are the only ones left. We are the last of our kind.**_

_** He likes to fancy he "borrowed", and by "borrowed" he means stole, me from the museum where I had spent my entire existence. Since I was the last, I was to be preserved to history, to show the next generations what glories we, my sisters and I, were. The fact of the matter is though...I "borrowed" him. It was always supposed to be him.**_

_** We are grown you see, as I mentioned before, from the fibres of the Gallifrey earth. Constructed of minerals, stars, and time and space. The same earth, minerals, stars, and time and space as my Doctor. I picked him. I surrendered my entirety to him knowing that he would take me to finally see the stars and time that I was made of...and made for.**_

_** We TARDIS's, as I'm usually called, were designed to be piloted by 6 Time Lords but from the time of my first voyage I have been in the hands of one and I can't fathom a voyage without him. His imprint is all over me. He may change his appearance, just as I or he may change mine, but our makeup, our essence and our very fibres are as such that I would know him anywhere. Our imprint on each other is infinite, the most lasting things in the vortex of infinite time and space.**_

_** I know my Doctor to his very cells. His past, his present and his future I know better than my own circuits and boards. I know that he is running, that he's been running since he was 8 years old. I know that in a body that seldom truly tires he'll keep running until the day he can run no more.**_

_** He wonders why his landings are sometimes off, why he doesn't always land where and when he intends. He blames my navigation system. Always so quick to pretend it's chance is my Doctor. Too eager for an adventure is he, to question truly why things happen like they do. At least when it comes to me.**_

_** What he doesn't know, or what he refuses to see, as there is no true secrets between my Doctor and me, how could there be? He is me and I am him, we exist together, the last our kinds, the last of our planet. Maybe it's because he's scared to admit, maybe it's because denial is easier, I'm not sure, I'm still only a space ship after all, but I take him exactly where he needs to be.**_

_** Sometimes I take him where space and time needs him to be.**_

_** Sometimes I take him where **_**he**_** needs to be in that big vast time and space. Yes, sometimes my Doctor refuses to tend to his needs so I take the liberty. He takes care of time and space...I endeavour to take care of my Doctor.**_

_** He needs companionship, more than mine, more than I can give him. I know better than most what it means to be alone, to be the only one left. He needs a flesh and blood hand to hold. A hand to hold while runs.**_

_** My Doctor does like to run.**_

_** He needs love more than I can give. I am still just a ship, even if I've evolved more than I was ever meant to in these centuries with my Doctor. I am connected to him and my heart resides in him but still the only thing I can offer is my unwavering but silent companionship.**_

_** This is why today I am taking him back...back to Bad Wolf Bay.**_

_** Back to Rose Tyler.**_

_** He is the Doctor.**_

_** She is the Bad Wolf and the love of his existence, as I knew she would be. As I knew the day we touched down in London. I knew. I took him there, I am taking him back to her.**_

_** Around us in the vastness of time and space.**_

_** Between are walls that never should break.**_

_** But I am the TARDIS, I am the last of my kind. I am the vehicle that travels the vortex of all that is. **_

_** I am the TARDIS, I am the keeper of the Doctor and I am taking him back.**_

* * *

_My name is Rose Marion Tyler. I am the Bad Wolf. I was the companion of the Doctor. I travelled through time and space with a Time Lord, the last Time Lord...a man not a man but still the love of my entire life. The love of my short, hazing past before him, my encompassing present and as sure as I stand on this sandy bay I know he is the love of future...even if I know that he cannot be, that his time line no longer links with mine._

_ Time is a wonky, indefinable, and a mysterious sort of thing. It is full of oddities and ever changing bits. I don't pretend to understand any of it, or not a lot of it anyway. Even seeing what I've seen, doing what I've done sometimes I am overwhelmed by what I've still yet to learn._

_ The vision, the projection of my Doctor just vanished. The last visage of what I had, of what I knew was simply severed from my life, from my timeline. He said he can never come back, that I can never leave. All that I have left now are memories of a life lived between millions of centuries – billions even. Memories of watching Earth destruct, memories of a hundred adventures – hopes for adventures still left to embark on. Memories of falling in love slowly, befriending fast, trusting emphatically, denying nothing but everything. Memories of dying and of living...oh of living! Living grandly and endlessly. Memories of a home made in the stars. I was companion to the Doctor, my home was the universe and my heart existed there. There in that expanse of eternity, with him. With the Doctor. My Doctor._

_ It was so sudden, so... I never thought that was how we'd part. I promised him forever. My forever – all of it. Every moment in my timeline I pledged to him without hesitation but here I stand in a parallel universe where I have everything I could imagine wanting: Mum, Dad...Mickey. All the things I wanted before I met my Doctor, before I became the Bad Wolf. Before I promised a man in a tatty leather jacket my entirety. Before I fell in love with a Time Lord, the last of his kind. My timeline has not finished, it's only been altered, torn from his and that isn't right. I promised him forever._

_ We were supposed to travel among the stars...forever._

_ We were supposed to at least be able to have a proper goodbye. He should have been able to say it, he should have said it and he should have figured out a way to save us. We were worth saving._

_ We are still worth saving._

_ I am the Bad Wolf._

_ I create myself._

_ I take the words._

_ I scatter them...in time and space._

_ A message to lead myself here..._

_ I could have died a long time ago, I could have died that day that I and my Doctor were torn apart instead of getting sealed up on wrong side of the wrong universe...but I didn't. I saved the Doctor, he saved me...I saved myself. We save each other time and time again. He saved, he _saves _the world. It's time we saved us._

_ My name is Rose Tyler, I was the companion of the Doctor._

_ I promised him forever._

* * *

The Doctor blinks, tugging his ear, "Well, that's different," he mutters pausing in his frantic running about the TARDIS counsel.

He had always been one prone to talking aloud to either ship or whatever objects that were about. Most beings would be surprised at exactly how aware and listening many things were. He was never, well hardly never, talking simply to himself.

He had though, grown rather accustomed to talking to Rose. _'Best not venture there right this moment'_, he thought sourly, Rose had been gone two years, best to leave her there he tried to convince himself.

The Doctor was quite used to loss, used to it in a way that no being ever should be, but he was never the less. He worried about that sometimes. Part of him wished it'd get easier, part of him feared what it'd mean if it ever did. He didn't want to think about Rose, no indeed not. Not yet anyway, not when he thought of how he had had to leave her.

No, then he'd have to think about things he hadn't said, hadn't done...the things he had done. Like leaving her. He had done that.

No, best not think about Rose Tyler right this very moment. It was too raw, too new.

The TARDIS had obviously landed somewhere, somewhere clearly not the prehistoric era of Raymienedale, but very clearly somewhere.

He called out to his ship using the name only he knew, the name he only ventured to use when it was just him and his ship. He knew she wouldn't respond verbally or really in any audible way, but he knew she always understood, just as he understood her. They were two of kind really, well two of a kind in that they were now the only ones of their kinds...if you can be two of a kind like that. He might have to ruminate on that later. Maybe over a banana and a good cup of tea.

"What did you do, you blasted, sexy, spaceship you..." the Doctor always loved a good toss about, a grand adventure but this just reeked of his ship's meddling. Her navigation system seemed to constantly conspire against him, his driving wasn't _that_ bad.

Undeterred, in fact rather excited he wagged his eye brows, flashed a large toothy smile as he grabbed his brown trench, patted his pocket to be sure his ever trusty sonic screwdriver was at the ready and burst through the TARDIS door with barely constrained exuberance.

Both of his very healthy Time Lord hearts came to an unexpected stop in his chest as he felt his trainers shift in the unsteady sand.

"Bloody h..." the exclamation died on his lips.

Rose.

His knees he found to be strangely jelly. He wanted to look down and assure himself that they were still attached but he couldn't move his eyes from his Rose.

This wasn't possible.

This walls were sealed.

He couldn't be here.

He _shouldn't _be here.

He couldn't move. The Doctor who was accustomed to always moving, always running toward the next adventure found that he couldn't move. This was all wrong.

_ This. Was. So. Very. __**Very**__. Right._

His hearts were pounding in his chest. It was just how he remembered, the bay, the pristine Nordic beach. His companion...his pink and yellow human.

_Rose Tyler_.

His usually unflappable self decided to be decidedly flapped. His usual rational and calm demeanour decided at that very moment to desert him.

His usually solid and dependable body decided to be considerably less...dependable as his knees gave out and he felt himself sinking into damp sand.

This was dangerous, this was all kinds of dodgy, wonky and wrong. Worse than dodgy really, it was bad. This was impossible.

The walls were sealed, the void...the contamination.

How...? Why?

_TARDIS. _He felt her presence pulse a little brighter, a little warmer in his mind.

Of course this had all taken just fraction of seconds in his superior Time Lord mind and he watched now as his Rose Tyler sprinted toward him yellow-blond hair streaming behind her.

"Doctor!" she cried as she slid kicking up sand to stand before him.

He looked up at her, an entirely new perspective for him, and blinked.

She sunk to her knees inches in front of him. "Are you real? Are you here...are you real, Doctor?" she pleaded, he caught the frantic, painful tones in her voice.

Her words were panted as she had lost her breath, her brown eyes burned so brilliant and her hands...those lovely, warm, human hands he had missed so much were clenched tight in front of her. He wanted to stop, to just absorb this clearly stolen, clearly fleeting moments. Her rising chest, her flushed cheeks, her singular wonderful heartbeat. His Rose.

"Oh yes...so very real. I'm very real Rose Tyler." He felt his face crack into a large, wide smile, a smile that belonged to only his Rose.

Her face, her body, her heartbeat relaxed and in flash he found himself being tackled by a wildly laughing and delighted warm human.

Hugs, oh hugs were good. Hugs from his Rose were the best kind of hugs. This was part hug, part tackle...part reunion with a piece of his soul he hadn't realized was missing. This was the link that had been missing. His link to humanity, his link to...well everything.

He wasn't lost any more. This was where he had been running to his entire life. His entire long life. It had taken losing her, not just losing her...not just temporarily misplacing her as he might have accidently done a time or two, oh no, it had taken losing her in the worst and most finite way possible. It had taken losing her to an entirely different universe...and suddenly gaining her here again to realize that she was what he had been running toward.

Forever, or however long they had. These surely ending moments, maybe his eternity, maybe her forever, time no longer had true meaning to this Time Lord as he hugged her to his body. Her warmth seeping into his being.

"Oh Rose Tyler, I've missed you..." he whispered to her hair as he hugged her closer. One hand holding her face close to him, he pressing his face to her neck where he breathed deep her assuring, _right_, scent. This was home. This was everything.

"And I've missed you...I thought...I never..." she laughed pulling from him words obviously failing her.

He found he had the desire to just look at her face and never stop. Tears were falling quite freely from her eyes but her smile was as radiant as he'd ever seen.

"Quite right...quite right," he answered around the sudden lump in his throat.

"How? I mean you said...but you're..." She suddenly pinched him.

"Owe! What was...oh, I remember, but I didn't ask if I was dreaming."

She grinned, "Just making sure, but really now, how are you here?"

"How did you know to come? Or do you just wander about Norway on whims?"

She tipped her head biting her lip, "Right, I don't know that it makes a lot of sense."

"And everything about our time together made so much sense," he couldn't help quip dryly at her. He hadn't been able to let her go, even as the damp sand saturated his trousers.

"I felt...I felt the TARDIS. Like she was right there, in my flat. In my mind...she spoke to me. She told me I was needed, that I was supposed to come and...save you. She called me."

He shook his head smiling, "Oh my little ship has some explaining to do she does."

"This can't possibly be real? I mean we can't stay together...can we?"

He looked down to the hands which hadn't let go of him.

"I honestly don't know." But he did. He wasn't losing her again. He just hadn't figured out how to keep her, yet.

"I have to tell you something...something I meant to say awhile ago..." he says suddenly as they struggle to stand up without letting the other go.

She looks at him taking firm hold of his hand while swatting at the clinging sand on both of their bodies with the other, "Oh, do you think it really needs saying?"

She was grinning at him as she tossed his words back at him. He stilled both of her hands, catching them in his own. Pulling her slowly flush against him, "Oh I think it does, yes it really, _really_ does."

She grinned at him, leaning against him, and peering up, "Should I start?"

"Oh I think I remember the line, something about how I was slender and a bit foxy?" he teased trapping their hands behind her back as he pressed his forehead to hers.

"Hm, that sounds accurate but I don't think that is what I said."

"No? Hm, didn't you say that...?"

"Hush, you confounding man, you know what I said and what you were supposed to say back! So just say it, 'ight?"

"Fine...Rose Marion Tyler, I think you're just _swell_."

If he could have frozen time, captured that look that was on her face and hold in a frame for eternity he would. That brilliant flashing of defiance in her eyes, the knowing smile that was just a bit wild, just a little bit unknown, all wonderfully mysterious. The way she tipped her head in that conspiratorial, come hither way. The look that she was giving him in that moment was everything that summed up Rose Tyler. Well, nearly everything.

"That's not right, try again." She pushed up against him further.

"Well, how about, I love you too Rose Tyler? Better?"

"Much," she answered and managed to free her hands.

"I'm glad you..." She interrupted him by threaded her hands into the labels of his pinstripe jacket and pulling him, not too unwillingly closer to her lips.

"Just snog me already Doctor, eh?" she breathed.

Her sweet breath and sweeter words spurred him into action. Snog her then he did.

The kiss was everything perfect and everything chaotic. It was purposeful and deliberate. This wasn't him kissing her to draw out the energy to save her life...though he wasn't dissing that by any means, this was just more.

This was better.

_So. Much. Better._

* * *

**My Doctor saves the universe, he defends the Earth. My Doctor solves the impossible time and time again, but this time I've solved his greatest pain. I've given him the companion that I can't be. I've given him back his Rose. I've rekindled in him love.**

**I give and take him where he needs to be, I give him what he can't give himself. I protect my Doctor. Together now, my Doctor, his Rose and I will travel space and time once again. Once again we'll be among the stars running not away from something, not toward anything in particular...just running, running to capture as much time and adventure as possible.**

** I am the TARDIS, I travel time and space, I am the keeper of the Doctor. **

* * *

**AN: OH, I do so hope you liked that all right...I know, not really an explanation on how the TARDIS broke into the alternate universe...and not really all that spectacular...I just like romance and really love the character of the TARDIS lol... As I said, haven't see The Doctor's Wife so I've no true idea of her personality...but I like to think perhaps she might be a little like this...**

**Much Love! RA**


	2. I Am Her, She Is Me

**...yeah, couldn't leave it be lol. Any following chapters will be out of sequence, but are glimpses at our Doctor, his Rose and the TARDIS on their great adventures. This story (obviously) doesn't strive to be canon nor very brilliant in sciencey explanations...hope y'all don't hate me for that :)**

**THANK YOU those that reviewed story 1!**

* * *

**I Am Her, She Is Me**

** My Doctor and his Rose are off and running again, on their next great adventure while I stand ever waiting, their port in an intergalactic storm. It has been some of the best days we've had together...my Doctor, his Rose and I. **

** I won't lie, though I care about Rose nearly as much as my Doctor because of what she means to him, I sometimes have a pang of jealously – strange for a ship, I know. But I do care for her. Because of what she did for him. Because of what she and I did together...in the name of saving our Doctor.**

** She tore into my soul to save him. Tore into the protective shell of me with savage devotion to save my – our Doctor. I've never forgotten that, I never will...even if I were able to, I wouldn't. It was in those moments that I knew she loved him like he would grow to love her. I knew she loved him like I did.**

** She was willing to die to save him. After such a short time together she gave up her home, her family and she was willing to give up her life for him. Even after he told her leave, to forget about him. **

** She did it anyway. She fought of him anyway. **

** He rescued her right back of course, he reabsorbed all that energy that I had seeped into her body, he held it inside of him until he died. **

** Well, that body died. My Doctor returned, regenerated. It was in those days that I knew, truly knew that Rose Tyler was the one. For the time that I was melded to the cells of my Doctor's pink and yellow human I knew her as she knew me. I knew her like I know my Doctor. In that time we were of the same fibres, of the same stars and time. We were eternal as all things grown from my planet are. **

** Rose Tyler is a very special person, more special than she or even my Doctor realize.**

** Rose Tyler will always be with the Doctor.**

** She will not die.**

** Not until I do, and I will not until my Doctor does.**

** My Doctor and I are the same...Rose and I are the same, we've been the same since my energy twined with hers. Our Doctor took it back, reabsorbed it but he couldn't undo the changes. The changes to her very cells. **

** Rose Tyler is not a Time Lord, she is still a Terran – a human from Earth. She has just changed in her deepest matter. She has tied her heart to the Doctor and her body to me. She willing took my soul into her body to save – to die – for the Doctor. The least I could do was give her what I could. I webbed my energy, my life with hers. **

** She cannot remember what I did, the little promise I whispered before my Doctor called me back and I cannot tell her, or him. It is perhaps the cost of all that I am, I am silent and unable to act, except for the little interferences now and again; the soft hums and subtle changes in light.**

** I am the TARDIS and I give what is needed to those in my care. I knew she was the one, I knew as I felt her heart, knew her mind for what she wanted, what she needed. She needed a longer forever.**

** She is everything that I can't be. She is what my Doctors needs, what he, in the deepest parts of his hearts wants. I like to think that Time Lords were given two hearts not just so that they can live their long, long lives but because they have two eternal loves.**

** One heart for his ship, his key to time and space. To the stars and space. One heart for me.**

** One heart for the being that loves him, that needs him. One heart saved and protected for the mate, the truth and his life. **

** The Doctor is not the Doctor without both of his hearts. He is not the Doctor without me or without his Rose. He needs both of us.**

** It's been eight years since the three of us; my Doctor, his Rose and I were reunited but I don't think they really notice. We've not returned to Bad Wolf Bay, what I did before I cannot do again, so Rose hasn't seen her family and that, I think, is why they haven't been as aware that she hasn't aged. Hasn't tired like his companions before. They've nothing to compare the passing of time to.**

** Time becomes confused, mixed up in the mind as you travel forwards and back, in and out. It's why the Doctor can't even remember how old he is any more. It ceases to matter after a time, but I am the TARDIS, I'm not allowed the luxury of forgetting all together. I can disregard it from time to time, I can choose not to think on, but I can never forget it.**

** Neither can my Doctor's Rose. She might not see the years upon her skin, she might not wear it like others have but she feels it. **

** She feels the ticking of her internal human clock, just as I feel it. She is not quite so connected to me as my Doctor, and she doesn't realize it quite so much, but we, she and I, share a strong link too.**

** She desires a child.**

** Not to the point of mentioning. Not to the point of giving up her Doctor, no never ever that. It's not even that obvious. She might not even realize she's feeling it. **

** But I do.**

** I am the TARDIS, I take care of the Doctor and those that belong to us.**

** I noticed it first just a few months ago. A small planet, Na'hash, was facing destruction from a neighbouring moon. The armies were made up of children, the babes were sacrificed until my Doctor and his Rose brought peace...and taught a new way.**

** It didn't change the way it had tortured his Rose. She wept for hours alone in her room. The Doctor didn't hear her, she kept it very clearly from him.**

** That's when it started, that little ticking in our human's heart. The urge to be a mother, the questions of how any mother could do what the Na'hash had done. Always a compassionate one Rose Tyler, she had however never grieved this much.**

** Then came the silent questions I saw tickling around her brain. What it would be like, raising a child in the vortex of time and space. She wondered further still if I had a nursery.**

** She wondered and pondered often the remark my Doctor had made once, off-handed and absent minded...about how he had been a father once.**

** Would he want to be again? She asked this one of her self quite often, along with asking if she wanted, truly, to be a mummy.**

** The answer was 'of course', she just decided today. Decided as my Doctor ate his banana and rattled on about the edges of space and the physical weight of light, that she did indeed want to be a mother.**

** A mother to a little brown eyed, spiky haired child. A child of stars and adventures. She wanted to be the mummy to my Doctor's child.**

** As soon as that fleeting moment of her decision cemented it melted again.**

** She knew she couldn't. **

** She knew that they were incompatible, my Doctor and her. The my Doctor couldn't have kids. Of all the things he could give her, the gift of time and stars, a child was the one thing he never could.**

** She knew, she thought, that even if they could, that my Doctor could never want it.**

** She decided he couldn't, wouldn't, want the burden, the worry...the domestic slower path that a child would mean. **

** ...Even if she could find a nook for a nursery. **

** One couldn't run with a baby not even able to walk.**

** Rose Tyler decided in that moment just after she decided she wanted to be a mummy that she wanted my Doctor and the stars he offered more.**

** Her forever with him, in the TARDIS – me, was enough. **

** Running with my Doctor, dancing in the stars was more than enough, more than she thought she could ever have. Oh, she was happy with enough.**

** My Doctor's Rose is not a selfish one.**

** But I am the TARDIS, I know more than she knows, I know more than my Doctor knows, when it comes to his Rose. I am the silent siren, the quite hum in their minds, I know the future, I've seen the past. I know their desires, I know their hearts.**

** My Doctor has two hearts, one I like to fancy belongs to me, the other completely to his Rose.**

** I am the TARDIS, I know the time has come, time to give up my place, time to give up – just a little, of all that we are. My Doctor is the last of his kind, but it's time, it's time for another. It's time for a child's laughter to echo off my coral walls.**

** I am the TARDIS, I am the keeper of the Doctor, his Rose and I am their home. It's time, time for them to create new life. This, this is the start.**

* * *

"All right Rose, just a little pinch," the Doctor said as he drew blood in the TARDIS infirmary.

"I really don't see why this is necessary, I mean I'm healthy as a horse..." Rose grumbled. It wasn't that it hurt overly much, she just wasn't that fond of needles to begin with.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk Rose Tyler..." the Doctor chided with a dramatic face, "It's only time to update the TARDIS records. It has nothing to do with how healthy you are _now_. Really, it's a small needle too."

She made a face at him as he dropped the vial into the small receptacle on the counter.

"Hard part done, now just hold still." He made a great show of setting his sonic screwdriver to the desired setting and danced it around her.

Rose rolled her eyes, "I get to do this to you when you're done, yeah?"

The Doctor pulled back, screwdriver held to his chest, "Well I suppose, but you're not using a needle. The TARDIS, even without phalanges will handle the needle better."

Rose laughed loudly, "Probably for the best." Rose stuck her tongue out at him.

Some minutes later Rose and the Doctor left the infirmary with the TARDIS scanning, analysing their biological material to ensure they were both getting proper nutrients for their unique bodies, to prepare any vaccines or boosters for currently catalogued viruses, plagues, and diseases in the currently known universe.

The Doctor and Rose felt quite secure with the TARDIS looking after their bodily health, they had quite enough going on with just keeping alive on their many adventures. Not having to worry about the menial exposers was quite a relief.

"Where to now Rose Tyler?" the Doctor asked with a wild gleam in his eyes, "Forward? Back? Maybe the good 'ole mystery tour, eh?" His eyebrows danced up and down as he screwed up his smile into various forms, he was rocking on the balls of feet, itching to run.

"You know what I'd really fancy?" Rose sat herself in the jump seat, crossing an ankle of her knee.

"What is that my pink and yellow cupcake?" he asked absently as he fiddled with this and that.

The doctor only stilled when he realized that she wasn't responding.

"What?" he asked innocently at her raised, questioning eyebrow.

"Pink and yellow _cupcake_? Where did that come from?"

"Dunno, don't like it?" he twirled a gear.

"Well, it's different. Why the sudden nicknames, hm?"

"Dunno...I don't really have a nickname for you, nicknames are fun. We need nicknames."

Rose rolled her eyes, "Doctor, _Doctor_ is your nickname."

He made a face at her, "You never like my ideas."

Rose's jaw dropped and she just stared at him, "That's right Doctor, I just never go along with you..." she struggled to keep from laughing and again, rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I'll play along...nicknames, yeah? I could call you...Foxy? You seem to fancy that, eh?" she grinned, tongue pressed against her teeth.

The Doctor was quiet as he plopped himself down next her on the jump seat, she sliding over to give him room.

"I'm not...opposed to Foxy," he draped his arm around over her shoulders, along the back of the seat. "I was thinking of something else though...something a little more personal."

"How much more personal can you get than Foxy?" she laughed, nudging him with her shoulder.

"Well, I was thinking...perhaps Husband and Wife, that's kind of personal."

Rose stopped breathing, "Wh...what?" she blinked at him like she had no idea who the Time Lord sitting next to her was.

"Well, I was thinking..." he rubbed a hand through his hair, "We've been back travelling together, how long? A while...you are living currently a bran new life. You previous life, your previous timeline ended in this universe, you can create yourself...again. I was thinking perhaps you and I might create something together...I was thinking I might fancy getting married, something new, haven't done that yet..."

Rose was staring straight ahead, her mind feeling like it had taffy in the gears, it was taking so long to process what it was he was saying. "You're the Doctor, the Doctor doesn't get married...he doesn't do domestic... You are still getting the hang of snogging me, you know that married people do more than kiss, right?"

The Doctor, to his credit didn't fidget or seem uncomfortable. He did however, tug his ear as he thought, "I _know_ that," he drew out his sentence. "Maybe I want to do more than snog you Rose Tyler, ever think of that? Maybe I want to do more than snog you and I want to do it proper?"

Rose blushed fuchsia, she hadn't thought about that actually. She wouldn't pretend that it wasn't something she wanted, she was still a red-blooded female and she wanted, at times needed, more than a good heavy, passionate kiss (he was a spectacular kisser) but she had just accepted a long time ago that the Doctor wasn't programmed the same way as the men she was used to. He was a Time Lord, not a human...she figured their urges were different. She was okay with that...mostly. In Rose's short, but relatively long, life she had come to learn that life was full of trade-offs. She thought she had traded off romance and husband for the Doctor.

She thought it was a fantastic deal, she wasn't complaining in the slightest.

She had the Doctor, he loved her, he kissed her, he held her hand, he hugged her. She had her Doctor and she was fabulously happy with that...mostly.

"You want to marry me? Truly?" she finally looked at him.

"Yeah, is that so hard to believe?"

"Actually yes. You want to marry me...and do you want to..." she found herself blushing again, this was the Doctor. Her best friend, her love and she was blushing at the thought at even _mentioning_ sex.

"Yes, I want to marry you and I would want to...share that unnamed thing you can't seem to say to me, with you."

Rose had to laugh softly at that. She bit her lip, turning serious, "Well you can't say it either Truly Doctor, I mean are you asking me seriously...not just because you think I want it?" she lifted her eyebrows, searching his face.

"Because you know I'm happy here, more happy than I could 'ave ever imagined. I thought I'd never see you again...I thought you were gone forever, but you came back...the TARDIS brought you back to me and I have everything I ever dreamed, everything I didn't dare to dream I could have..." she grabbed his hands.

"So...is that a no?" he asked, a ghost of worry on his face.

Rose playfully punched him in the shoulder, "Doctor stop...this is serious! You can't just toss out 'let's be husband and wife' like that...it's serious. Now answer me, what are you playin' at?"

The Doctor sobered, "You promised me forever, I thought it was just time I promised you the same thing, properly... And I do rather enjoy snogging you Rose Tyler, thought it might be...quite enjoyable to do more than that."

Rose pinked again, gaze falling.

"And this doesn't have to be stone and grave serious you know, nothing about how we're living now is quite right, is it? No! Maybe we can just enjoy being...and nothing about our life will really change all that much. We'll never be the four walls and mortgage type, will we Rose?" the Doctor paused.

Rose laughed and shook her head, "No...I enjoy my adventures with my Doctor too much."

"Quite right, too," he beamed.

"So," the Doctor seemingly considering the matter settled turned to look at the console, "Where and when would you like to have our wedding ...and more important our wedding _night,_ my dear Rose Tyler?"


	3. I Am a Rock

**The Time Lord and his Rose Go On a Date**

* * *

**I Am a Rock**

"All of time and space and you pick Scotland in the middle of January, in the middle of the 1980ies, why again?" the Doctor ran a hand through his hair then let it rest on the back of his neck.

Rose grinned hands clasped in front of her, "Well, my dear Doctor there happens to be a fantastic little concert in Edinburgh I was reading about the other day, I want to see it, yeah?"

The Doctor appeared incredulous, "A concert? Really? All of time and space and you choose to go to a concert in the 80ies, well the 1980ies, I would have been impressed if you'd of chosen the 1780ies, or even the 1880ies...Mozart was a bloody fantastic composer. Did you know that dear Johannes – that was his baptismal first name you know... Johannes Chyrsosomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, what a mouthful that is...Anyway did you know that when he was just 4 years old..."

"Doctor!" Rose broke in halting his pacing around the console room by grabbing his hand.

"Yes, my Rose?" he grinned.

"This concert never really got much attention though huge names played it... Cher, the Proclaimers, Simon & Garfunkel...it was a benefit concert. The TARDIS and I were playing some of the oldies last week and I just would really like to see, so we can do that, yeah?"

The Doctor peered at her with his head cocked to the side.

"We could pop off and get chips, ya know?" she added when he still hadn't said anything.

"I know what this is...oh yes, I do! This is a date! You want a date!" he wagged his finger at her, "Concert, chips...I suppose you'll want me to wear a suit..." he paused briefly, "Right, well, I'm already wearing a suit...but you're wanting a right and proper date aren't you Rose Tyler!" he sniggered and made a clucking sound with his tongue, "And here I thought you were more the year 5 billion and a planet's destruction type gal..."

Rose rolled her eyes dramatically, "I'm both. Just happens that maybe I am wanting something a little more...traditional. I wouldn't trade our first _date _for anything, but a concert does sound lovely, no?"

"Answer honest, is it this particular concert, or is it a date you're really wanting?"

Rose blew out a breath, puffing her cheeks out slightly, "Well, I was honestly listening to oldies while you visited with Madame Curie the other day... But I guess it is a date I'm after. Not that I don't love our adventures and saving the world and stuff, just some times it would be nice to just spend some time and...I dunno, relax, enjoy the scenery just a bit?"

"Now, I did promise you that where ever in time and space...but since it is a date you're wanting what do you say to letting me plan one, hm? That is rather my role, is it not? The husband is supposed to think of date ideas and what not?" the Doctor tapped his chin with his folded glasses he had pulled from his pocket and then forgot what he had retrieved them for.

"Well, I suppose. Sometimes. Sometimes the wife does...or they do it together. Especially very important dates..." Rose put heavy emphasis on 'important'.

The Doctor caught that and looked at her strangely, "Right. Well, this time I'll do it. Why don't you...uh, I don't know, go do some Rose things...I need to plan!"

Rose laughed and leaned up to kiss his cheek, "I love you, you know."

She watched a touch of a blush pink his cheeks, "I know...and I love you too."

* * *

**My Doctor has forgotten his anniversary. Rose, showing again why she is the one for my Doctor has seem to expect this. I remember the day she had been listening to what she called 'oldies' while my Doctor consulted with Marie Curie. I remember as I'm a complex, highly aware, advanced ship...but also because she had my whole vibrating with the noise. I still have the files in my memory...I recall she played this one quite a few times.**

_Is it in his face?**  
**Oh no! That's just his charms**  
**In his warm embrace?**  
**Oh no! That's just his arms**  
**If you want to know if he loves you so**  
**It's in his kiss**  
**That's where it is **  
**It's in his kiss**  
**That's where it is_

**I wondered why that song, I came up with several hypothesis, the one I'm most inclined to side with was she was likening it to the way the Doctor regenerates. I believe this because she scrolling through pictures on the work station computer my Doctor had set up in her study. She lingered over the ones from the Doctor's 9th regeneration. The man she had first met. The man she had saved. The one that first kissed her, though I'm doubtful she remembers that. **

** I remember feeling her questions and her fear when this current form of the Doctor changed in front of her. I, of course, am rather used to it. It's a bit uncomfortable at first, feeling the pathways of his new mind, a mind so like the one before, but also unlike too. The personality changes, the raw and base...sameness too. **

** My Doctor questioned if his Rose would stay with him, stand by him. I know she questioned if she would too. **

** I however never did.**

** I knew. I always know. All the companions before, I've known before him. There is fate and there is some magic the galaxy hasn't quite yet revealed to me but there is also some kind of knowing that affects me, that helps me put him in the right spot and just the right time to meet the people that have sculpted and carved him into the being that he is. Like him, I never know quite why, but I know who.**

** My Doctor's Rose sees him a bit like how I see him I think. She less sees his body, his physical form and more his soul, she sees _him_. **

** She's contemplating this again I think, as she has retired to her little study adjacent to my Doctor's. This room she has decorated with all kinds of mementos of their adventures and pictures of them, of her family. I wonder if this isn't why my Doctor doesn't venture to bother her much when she's in here. Not just to respect this 'sanctuary' as he called it when he introduced her to the room but because I think sometimes seeing his former form and the family she gave up for him several times over, makes him feel guilty. **

** I'm hypothesising again though. **

** She has just printed a few of their wedding photos. A lovely affair that was. She's arranging a collage in a large photo frame. These wedding photos are joining others, odd photos from all times, both forms. She has written out quotes on lovely paper and arranged them about also.**

_ "You don't have a Soul. You are a Soul. You have a body." - C.S. Lewis_

_ "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." - Emily Bronte_

**Their wedding photo, right in the centre. This is everything to her.**

** She's pulling up her playlist now and filling her room with music, their music. Her playlist is called Forever. **

** Unchained Melody – Righteous Brothers  
****The Longest Time – Billy Joel  
****Love Me Tender – Elvis Presley  
****In My Room – Beach Boys  
****Wear My Ring Around Your Neck – Elvis Presley  
****The Shoop Shoop Song – Cher  
****I Would Walk (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers**

**And the list goes on...**

** Song after song plays and all are some kind romantic heartbreak, or some kind of up tempo proclamation of devotion. I'll never understand why humans do this. My Doctor has a great affinity for music yes, but not like his Rose. She seems to have a song for everything and she plays music quite non-stop when alone.**

** It isn't that I begrudge her this, this bit of her home and her life. It's just I don't understand it really. It isn't part of my programming I suppose.**

** She is just putting the finishing putting the last pictures on the collage and then replaces the glass on the frame. She wraps it in a patterned cloth and ties it with a ribbon.**

** Ah, she means it as a gift for my Doctor.**

** I wonder if she knows that paper is the traditional One Year gift. **

** So it would seem that they both haven't quite lost track of all time... Perhaps my Doctor will come around as well.**

* * *

The Doctor scrubs at his face with both hands. He wasn't tired exactly, no tired wasn't the right word at all. He was trying to remember something, something that he wasn't entirely sure he forgot.

There was something though, something right there on the tip of his brain. Something itching and important. Something that he should know.

Well bloody hell.

He forgot to get more bananas on their last trip to market!

He felt infinity better now that he had cleared up the thing he couldn't remember if he was forgetting. Now he could focus on taking his wife on a date.

He loved Rose, loved her dearly. More than he could ever really think to say. Loving her didn't even really begin to cover it. He couldn't fathom existing without his Rose. The concept was as foreign to him as...well, not liking chips. It just wasn't a possibility he could entertain.

Losing her terrified him. It was the nightmare that every once and a while crept into his sleep. He tried to dismiss the advancing of time, tried to ignore the ticking of the clock. Usually it was pretty easy since being a Time Lord and travelling as he did kept him rather wibbly-wobbly on the time situation.

It was also easy since it appeared Rose had superior genes, she barely looked a day older than the first time he had met her in that basement of that department store. Matured a bit, in the eyes especially, there was just a deeper sense of knowing and understanding, and that actually made him glad. They were growing together, even if she was the only one growing older.

Now, though...he needed to take his lovely wife on date.

Music. She loved music, he knew that and she had mentioned the concert originally. He found his way to his study and pulled up the TARDIS entertainment files. His lovely Rose also had a penchant for old movies. Old American movies, something about Cary Grant or something another, he thought he was British...but never the mind. At any rate, the entertainment files in the TARDIS system were far larger than they had ever been.

He accessed the shared files and looked through what she had been recently playing.

He recognized a good many of the titles, all Earth hits and rather drab. He did approve of the song by the Proclaimers, he found that one quite...fun. It reminded him a bit of his Rose too.

Of course though, his probably favourite group was The B-52's. Lovely group they were. Quite extensive knowledge of other planets. Especially Planet Claire, he always wanted to have a chat with them. Perhaps they would one day. Catchy sound they had. He highly suspected one or more of them were of alien origin themselves. Them and Adam Ant. Proof? No. Suspicions? Yes.

He tapped on the desk annoyed. What was he supposed to do? Really, the year five billion and Earth destruction for a first date, how was he supposed to top that? Wedding literally in the stars as a new galaxy burst into existence...

Something new began not to just itch, but claw at his brain. He frantically typed into the computer terminal.

Galaxy: Éternelle et nouvelle

Age: One Earth Year

Birth Date: Today

The screen blinked menacingly at him. He had forgotten their anniversary. Their first anniversary. He wondered how mad she was. So far her actions had implied that she wasn't actually mad. It rather explained her want of a date though. It didn't however give him any other inspirations for this now quite important date.

He drummed his fingers on the desk in a rapid and violent tattoo.

He had to commend himself on the wedding bit, that was pure genius he had thought. First date: Earth destruction... Wedding: new galaxy. Life and Death...what did one do for one year though? Really, what did one do?!

What could he do to show his Rose everything that she meant to him?

What did he love about her, specifically?

He pulled open a leather bound book and picked up a rather terribly old fashioned quill and began to write.

She was brave. So very brave.

She was giving. She gave all, up to and including her life for him, for others.

She was so forgiving. She forgave him over and over and others that had done grievous wrong to her.

She believed in right above all else and didn't hesitate to call him out when she thought he was wrong. Always kindly though.

His Rose was so very kind.

And sweet, so very sweet.

Beautiful, that was his Rose, beautiful inside and out.

She gave him heart, patience, she gave him a conscious. She kept him, the Oncoming Storm at bay, calmed, grounded. She was in every way, every sense, his better half.

Without her he wasn't whole.

Without her he was rudeness and a barely constrained, ancient and forever...storm.

How was it that humans believed they could sum all of _that _up by saying "I love you". Love was just the beginning, love barely began to cover it.

So. How did he show it?

While he was deep in thought the computer terminal beeped loudly, loudly enough to shake him from his contemplation. He looked up and grinned widely at the screen as he read what flashed on it.

"Oh, brilliant, Old Girl, just brilliant!" he kissed the screen loudly, "Thank you! Just perfect."

* * *

"You have to give me an idea of where we're going! How will I know what to wear?" she pouted.

"Dress up, something nice and fancy...but nothing you will pout about if it gets...ruined."

"Ruined?" Rose quirked an eyebrow and folded her arms.

"Well you know, things rarely go as planned with us. Best to prepared for anything, yeah?" he grinned.

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, you're driving _is_ terrible..." she huffed melodramatically before smiling widely, tongue pressed to the back of her teeth as was her habit.

She made the fatal mistake of walking to close to the Doctor who was sitting in the jump seat. He quickly snagged her around the waist and pulled her into his lamp.

"Doctor!" she giggled, arms instinctually wrapping around his neck, "You're trouble, do you know that?"

"I'm just you're kind of trouble though, aren't I Rose Tyler?" he pressed his forehead to hers. He never grew tired of touching her. Playful, loving touches, romantic touches...sensual touches. Everything was more intense and...special with his Rose.

"Absolutely...Exactly my kind of trouble..." she kissed the corner of his mouth, teasing him.

He didn't take the teasing long, instead slanting his lips over hers to capture them completely. She accepted his ardent kiss gladly.

He was a confident and passionate kisser. He took the lead and thoroughly kissed her, nipped at her bottom lip, pressed against her teeth begging entrance. There his tongue warred with hers until she gladly submitted and let his move and taste her, claim her. The sexual and erotic nature of his kisses nearly pushed both of them over the edge.

"We're sadly going to have to break this up...else we won't be leaving this TARDIS for a good long time..." he reluctantly broke away after several minutes, shifting her on his lap. He might be a Time Lord, but that didn't mean he could fully overcome his base biology when presented with the sumptuous temptation that was his Rose.

Rose blinked at him wetting her lips, she smiled as she still tasted him there, "I'm suddenly confused on why leaving the TARDIS is a good thing..." she tried to wiggle closer.

He stood and made her reluctantly stand also. She was hesitant to let him go though.

"You wanted a date, a date you shall have. Now, hop to it. Go get ready, there are a few ...stops, I need to make before we get to the main attraction." He patted her on her rear and grinned cheekily.

She made a low sound in the back of her throat and did her best sashay out of the console room. The Doctor watched unabashedly, enjoying the view. Damn his Gallifreyan self-control, he'd really like to take her back to their bedroom and celebrate the old fashion way.

* * *

While the Doctor did his errands Rose perused the wardrobe. _Something nice_, hmph. Rack after rack of clothing and she couldn't find a single thing she wanted to wear.

Before the...well before they were separated as they were, she had always travelled with her own clothes. It wasn't that she was fashion conscious for the most part, she just just wasn't overly fond of sharing clothes from the Doctor's companions before. Each companion she knew contributed to making her Doctor the man that he was, and she was grateful, so grateful, to each and every one of them but that didn't mean she really wanted to wear one of their dresses on her wedding anniversary.

As she was moved up down the circular stairs something nearly tripped her.

It was a large cardboard box jutting out from a shelf. She didn't recognize it as she pulled it out and opened the lid to look inside.

Among lots of pale, cream coloured tissue was black and beige lace. She had never seen anything like it before. She gingerly lifted the article from the box. It was a mid-length dress, just to her knees with a full tulle skirt that was gathered and tacked up to create beautiful swags. The sleeveless bodice would be form fitting, off setting the full skirt. The bodice was a base of perfect beige silk overlaid with antique black lace. It was a simply stunning dress that made Rose gasp.

There was a pair of black lace detailed heels and a string of black pearls in the box. She had no idea where it had come from, or how it had gotten there but she was fairly certain the TARDIS had something to do with. She didn't know how, or really even why...but she knew.

Rose took her time in the en suite off the bedroom she and the Doctor shared. She wasn't really one for overly done makeup but she did love her mascara.

Made-up. Perfumed. Hair curled about her shoulders. Black pearls around her neck.

She slipped on her shoes, surveyed her appearance and was very pleased with how she looked. She couldn't help hoping the lipstick she was applying before heading toward the console room that her dear Doctor would be rubbing quite askew before the days end.

She made a quick detour to her study to retrieve her present for the Doctor, even if he didn't remember...she did and she had been working on her gift for some time.

* * *

The Doctor finished with his errands and made it back to the console room just before his Rose did. He had surrendered his favourite pinstripe suit for a tux tonight. It was a night worth dressing up for. He didn't however trade in his trainers. Comfort over fashion in that department he staunchly believed.

He straightened his bow-tie in the reflection of the TARDIS just as he heard the familiar clack of heels.

The first, very brief, thought when he looked his Rose up and down was that she was going to break her neck if her heel got caught in the grating, the second...well there wasn't a second coherent thought to be had.

"Rose Tyler...you...are...simply...stunning," he breathed.

She blushed and made a little curtsey, "I don't clean up too bad, eh?"

He smiled wider and motioned for her to spin. She obliged and turned a circle for him to admire the full effect.

"You are too beautiful for words...but what is that in your hands, hm? Is it a present...for me? I like presents from my Rose..." he closed the distance between them.

Rose grinned but held the package behind her back with two hands, "It might be..." She continued to beam up him, "You know, you don't look half bad yourself...I like when your hair is all mussed like that. You look like a naughty little boy. I'm also rather partial to bow-ties you know..." she stretched up to kiss him.

"You're a little vixen...is that a present for me or not?" he tried to look behind her back.

"It is...I had thought perhaps you'd open it later, but now is as a good time as any," she laughed and handed him the rather large package.

"Why don't you open yours while I open this, huh?" he produce a gift of his own, wrapped in brown and swirly blue paper.

"Doctor!" she exclaimed completely surprised.

"What? I might have forgotten initially – it wasn't on purpose, but something as important as the anniversary of the day we married? I was going to remember eventually. I know I'm not the ideal husband, I'm moody, snarky, rude...I forget the grocery list and I get preoccupied with things and I seem to take you on at least one death defying adventure a week... But I am crazy about you..."

Rose had tears glistening in her eyes, "Quite right, too...quite right," she answered thickly. Answering in their private joking way. "I love you too Doctor, so very, _very _much."

The Doctor nodded, surprised to find a few tears of his own starting in his eyes, "Well go on, open your present."

She nodded and they exchanged gifts.

Hers was contained a small jeweller's type box which she opened while holding her breath. Inside on a bed of satin the colour of the TARDIS's Police Box exterior was the most stunningly gorgeous diamond ring she had ever seen. The setting a 3D rose, graceful petals detailed in with small diamonds that glistened, catching every bit of light in the dim console room.

"Doctor...I...this is too much...I can't..." she stuttered tearing her gaze from the ring to him.

The Doctor for his part didn't really hear her, he was absorbed in staring at her gift.

"Rose...I don't know what to say. This is the most...perfect and incredible gift..." He gingerly ran his hand over the glass, over each picture.

The picture she had snapped when the went for chips...on their first date.

A black and white picture of them on the scooter the day of Queen Elizabeth's coronation.

The Christmas photos of them at her Mum's.

Of them laying on his jacket in New New York.

Random shots she had taken throughout their time on the TARDIS.

Their wedding photo.

He silently read the quotes that she had pasted among the pictures and when he got to the one close the bottom left, one just a little longer, a little larger than the rest he read it out loud.

_"Her heart-is given him, with all its love and truth. She would joyfully die with him, or, better than that, die for him. She knows he has failings, but she thinks they have grown up through his being like one cast away, for the want of something to trust in, and care for, and think well of. . . . "_

A tear did slip down his cheek then, "Dickens...I'm a fan."

Rose let her tears fall too, "I know, I remember. It's from Our Mutual Friend, the TARDIS helped me find it...I haven't read that book since...well quite a long time. I mean it though. I mean it with everything in me... I love you Doctor. I joyfully, grateful pledge my life to you, however long it is...I've given my everything to you, and I love you so very much..."

"I think it was during our time with Dickens that I realized I was falling in love you..." he murmured, "I mean I am sure I loved you from the start, I'm just a bit ...thick at times."

She nodded, agree with that, "You are, but I love you anyway. Every single bit of you...no matter what."

The both looked to the pictures, looked to things that they were, things that had brought them to where the were now. For the first time in a long time the Doctor looked back on his previous form and felt at peace. His Rose stood by him completely, without hesitation, without reservation. He felt entirely humbled.

"Now...about this ring," the Doctor shook himself and moved his attention back to the box Rose still held. "It was brought to my attention by a very meddling space ship that I left out a very important part in our wedding one year ago. Rings. This is a very important Earth ritual...I really don't know why you let me forget it..."

"It hardly seemed to matter really...I was so caught up in everything...and rings are something very...human. I didn't know..."

"If a Time Lord would wear or give a ring?" he chuckled, "Usually, no. Usually Time Lords don't marry humans though...A year ago we married by the rites of your home, I give you this ring as outward sign of my devotion, my love. It's a symbol of my promise to you to stand by you, to love you forever...without end. It is also a very basic and universal sign to any would be Lotharios that you belong to someone..to me. Just as I belong to you..." he lifted her left hand and with a pause to gain her consent, then began to slip the ring onto her fourth finger, "With this ring...I thee wed," he finished softly.

"I...I don't have..." she was crying again.

"I took the liberty, if you don't care that I picked it up..." he produced another ring, a simple silver band and offered it to her.

"No...I'm glad you did...I probably wouldn't have known your size," she laughed through her tears.

She took the ring and wiped at her eyes, hoping she wasn't ruining her make-up, "I promise you, like I promised you before to be right at your side for every single moment of forever. To love you and take care of you...to fight at your side, to hold your hand and always to run with you...where ever our adventures take us. This year as your wife has been one of the greatest of my life...and I hope to have many, many more with you Doctor..." she began the ring on his left hand, "With this ring, I thee wed."

"Do I get to snog you proper now?" he gave her a cheeky smile.

"You better!" she said softly.

"Okay...now that we've got that taken care of...the other part of our date..." the Doctor clapped his hands.

"You mean there is more?" she looked surprised.

"Oh, yes..." he offered her a hand, she took it without hesitation.

He opened the door and Rose caught her breath. They were under the water. The TARDIS was at the centre of a very large clear bubble. All around them was nothing but water. Pristine, glowing blue water. Rock formations slowly became visible as their eyes adjusted. Coral, sea grass, all kinds of plants and sea life. Blues, reds, purples, pinks, and greens filled their vision.

Rose stepped gingerly out onto packed, dry sand completely in awe, "Doctor...this, this is amazing..." she let go of his hand to venture out further. She looked up and slowly turned a circle. Overhead the diffused glow from a distant sun, or perhaps two, filtered down to illuminate their space. It was surreal, beautiful and so surreal. She had seen stars, she had danced on moonbeams...now she was at the bottom of an ocean. Would she ever run out of things to be amazed by? ...So long as she had her Doctor, she doubted it.

As she watched all kinds of fish started to swim about. None she recognized, leading her to believe this wasn't an Earth ocean. Now that she had figured that it wasn't earth she wasn't entirely sure she was looking at fish, though they looked like some kind of fish. Large ones, little ones...things that looked like jellyfish and illuminated bright orange and citron.

"This is simply amazing Doctor..." she went back to him and hugged him, "This is so amazing..." she peppered his face with enthusiastic kisses.

"I thought you might like it...and though it might be a little macabre, we have dinner..." he motioned her toward the area next to the TARDIS.

There stood a round table set for two. The table was covered with a white table cloth, glowing fine white china with an accent of silver circling the inner diameter. Flatware of sterling silver, carved with an ornate design. Elegant crystal wine glasses, the globes of which caught the rays of filtered sunlight and were filled with white wine. Several tall lamps glowed around the setting.

Dinner however was a very nice showing of Earth fish and chips wrapped in brown paper. Rose laughed delighted. "It is simply perfect..."

The Doctor and Rose sat and enjoyed their dinner in very animated conversation. They talked about the last year, about their next adventures and the Doctor even managed to limit his lecturing tangents. Over all it was a highly successful dinner.

The night was drawing near and the ocean around them had darkened, the soft murmurs of it cooed to them, lulling them.

"Do you remember the first time we danced?" the Doctor asked abruptly.

"You mean the only time we danced?" she smirked, "How could I forget...Berlin...1941, during the Blitz, the first year we met...it took a great deal of prodding if I remember. We did the Jitterbug, if I remember correctly."

"Will you dance with me now?" he asked seriously.

Her brow furrowed, "Here, now? We haven't got any music..."

"The last...well maybe not last, we've still got tonight..." he lifted his eyebrows suggestively, "but for now, the last part of your present..."

The Doctor rose from the table and offered her a hand. She accepted it rising with him.

The Doctor lead her to the centre of their bubble and while watching her and smiling he retrieved his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. He aimed it first at the lamps by the table, the turned off quickly. Then at the bubble around them, nothing immediately happened and Rose looked at him curiously, "Patience dear one..." he turned back and aimed it at the TARDIS.

The light on the top of the TARDIS blinked then an image was projected on the bubble wall. The image was grainy and black and white, it was a film, one of Rose's favourites.

"Blue Hawaii!" she exclaimed as Elvis Presley was projected, "There isn't any... Oh..." she stopped suddenly.

All the water around them was now filled with mermaids and mermen. The beautiful unearthly white of their exposed torsos caught light from the glowing jelly fish that surrounded them. The jewel tones of their fins glinted.

The Doctor wrapped an around around Rose's waist and lifted his other, "May I have this dance Rose?"

Rose, completely dazzled opened her mouth to again say there wasn't any music, but then there was.

The mermaid choir rang out in clear, perfect, harmony echoing in the perfect acoustics of the ocean.

_Wise men say only fools rush in  
But I can't help falling in love with you  
Shall I stay  
Would it be a sin  
If I can't help falling in love with you_

The Doctor and his Rose danced. They danced to the serenade of the alien mermaids on planet Kelth. They danced in the failing moonlight and the glow of the ocean planet. They whispered in each other's ear endearments and vows of love.

They remembered when a shop girl met a stranger in a basement...and her running after him with pure abandonment.

The way she wandered into his hearts without asking. The way he fell in love with her without trying, without warning.

_Like a river flows surely to the sea  
Darling so it goes  
Some things are meant to be  
So take my hand, and take my whole life too  
Cause I can't help falling in love with you_

"I knew, soon as you took my hand...that is was forever. More than forever...do you think there exists something more powerful than forever? I think there has to be...all that is in me believes there is more, and we have it..." she whispered.

"To the moon and back...to everything that is beyond it...it's always been, it was always supposed to be you...and there is nothing more powerful than that..." he answered kissing her deeply.

_Like a river flows so surely to the sea  
Oh my darling so it goes  
Some things are meant to be  
So won't you please take my hand, and take my whole life too  
Cause I can't help falling in love, in love with you  
Cause I can't help falling in love, falling in love,  
I keep falling in love with you_

The song was ending and slowly the mermaids were leaving, one by one. Before long the projection of Elvis went blank and the Doctor and Rose stood quietly in the darkness nothing but the dull roar of the ocean as it moved with the tide surrounding them.

"This has has been the most incredible, amazing night we've ever had...I don't even know what to say... Other than I love you, until we discover a word more encompassing than that, that's all I have. I love you. I love you with my whole heart, for my whole life..." Rose whispered, to do more would be to violate the stillness, the magic of the moment.

"And I love you my darling Rose...forever."

* * *

** So my Doctor ended up remembering his anniversary after all. Good for him...for them. He gave Rose a night she's not soon to forget and what a night it was.**

** It's a little bit hard, watching them as I do. I know it shouldn't be, I know I am a ship and I shouldn't having feelings, let alone pangs of jealously, but I do.**

** I want them to be happy, oh I do. It's why I took him back. It's why I do all that I do. I do want them happy, I want my Doctor happy but that doesn't mean that watching him with her doesn't sometimes make me wish that I had a body, a warm hand to offer. I wouldn't change our life, I really wouldn't. I am his rock, his home and his shelter. I always will be. I am the safe haven in the middle of galaxies and time for my Doctor, his island in the vortex.**

** I am hers too and I'm glad to be, I've just got to adapt. Rearrange things a bit. I am so happy for my Doctor and his Rose. She makes him so much better and he...he is the love of her life and there is no great thing than that.**

** I am leaving my anniversary gift to them on my main console, I don't know if they'll find it, I hope they do. I hope they realize what it means when they do. I don't know that they'll accept it when they go through the file...but I hope they do. It's the greatest gift I know how to give, other than what I've already given them – each other.**

** I am the TARDIS, I am a space ship, I am their home...I am a rock and I am island, because a rock feels no pain...and an island never cries.**

_**Don't talk of love,  
But I've heard the words before;  
It's sleeping in my memory.  
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.  
If I never loved I never would have cried.  
I am a rock,  
I am an island.**_

* * *

**AN: Yes, I know a LOT of older songs a lot of you might not know...what can I say, Christmas with my parents meant a musical retrospective with my father. Blame him. I Am a Rock by Simon and Garfunkel really to me is the perfect song for either the TARDIS or the Doctor without his Rose...love that song... and the others, but that one inspired the story the most (and Can't Help Falling In Love With You) even though it was the least featured. **

**(good time for the disclaimer) SONGS NOT MINE!**

**Also, do y'all need to go to the dentist? This was waaaaayyyyy sweet and gooey with romance and proclamations of love. I couldn't help it, I was feeling romantic. :D **

**Future chapters will include the wedding and what it is exactly the TARDIS gave them...though I'm pretty sure you already know. There also might be a few M chapters if you're open to that...or I can post them as a different story since these all have kept my K friendly...thoughts?**

**Reviews are GREATLY appreciated, as are all your follows and favourites...THANK YOU, SO MUCH for those. They mean a lot. I hope you all are still enjoying!**

**Wishing everyone a grand New Year and a fantastic year to come!**


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